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I had already walked away from the door when Judy's voice came from the kitchen/dining area.
"David, can you open the door? It's for me…"
I shrugged and took two steps back toward the door and opened it.
"Um…"
The girl standing in front of the door stared at me in shock. Her cigarette even fell out of her hand, and her eyes bulged as she looked me over from head to toe. What was there to look at, anyway?
I looked at myself…
Well, I was a young-looking guy… in boxer briefs… but in this city, with its tolerance and permissiveness, some people walk around naked in the streets. The game didn't have that, of course, but even there, they tried to convey the sense of permissiveness as much as possible. So a guy in boxers shouldn't cause a reaction like this in a Cloud doll. And I had no doubt that this was the very lady from the canon.
"Did I get some tattoos or something?"
"N-no… but you're…"
"Hey, Evelyn…"
Judy's voice was quite cold, which was surprising, since in the canon, they were either lovers or at least had a trusting relationship a while before it began. So trusting, in fact, that Evelyn could come to Judy with a braindance of a place she had essentially commissioned to be robbed. And not just any place, but the Kompeki Plaza!
For that, it had to be more than just a trusting relationship…
"…David, this is Evelyn Parker, my ex. Evelyn, this is David Martinez, my boyfriend."
"Your what?"
"My boyfriend."
Judy shrugged. I took a step to the side, letting Evelyn into the apartment. But she just froze in the hallway, not taking a single step inside.
"Wait, but I thought you were…"
"What?"
Judy smirked sarcastically.
"Into girls?"
"Well… I mean… yeah?"
Evelyn wasn't so sure about what she was saying anymore. And it was understandable because after asking that question, Judy just walked up to me, wrapped her arms around me, and kissed me. But while the kiss looked passionate from the outside, it felt…
In short, it wasn't a kiss of passion; it was more a kiss of hurt and vengeance, but her anger wasn't aimed at me, but at Evelyn. So by kissing me, Judy was getting her revenge. She was probably getting back at her for their not-so-pleasant breakup, and this kiss was what made Evelyn doubt what she was saying.
"This is unexpected…"
Judy pulled away from me and looked at Evelyn.
"What did you want?"
"Well… I mean…"
The girl helplessly stepped aside a little, and I could see a bag full of what looked like bottles.
"Ah…"
Judy nodded.
"I get it… you came to get me drunk, then fuck me, and that way, minimize the negative impression of all the things you said to me back then. Right?"
She smirked.
"What was it you said?
'I work for whores, and you don't want to be a whore your whole life. You want to be an actress, so I should just get the fuck out of here and not drag you down.' Right, doll?"
Evelyn flinched.
"Judy, what are you yelling about?"
Panam walked up to us, and now Evelyn's eyes got really big.
"And that is…"
"That's my and David's girlfriend."
Gasp… "I guess I came at a bad time?"
"A very bad time…"
Judy nodded. But the fire and hurt in her had subsided a little, and she became a bit more rational.
"So what did you want?"
"To drink…"
"Ah…"
Judy nodded.
"So my initial guess was right. Well, I don't have time right now. I have no time at all. I'm working."
"But I heard you left the Mox…"
"I didn't exactly leave, but yeah, I'm a solo now, and I don't have time to drink with you."
"Um… okay… I'm leaving…"
"Uh-huh…"
Judy waved her hand as if she was shooing away a bothersome fly. Evelyn turned, grabbed her bag, in which the bottles clinked, and then she just left, looking back at us. The door closed, and Judy exhaled…
"You okay?"
I decided to be tactful and put my arms around her shoulders.
"I'm fine… thanks for playing along."
"Hmm? But you didn't tell a single lie…"
I looked at Judy in surprise.
"Yeah…"
Panam nodded, and a smirk appeared on her face.
"You are David's girlfriend, and you're mine, too, since I'm not planning on letting him go."
"Um… seriously?"
"Yeah…"
I nodded, confirming Panam's words and pulled Judy closer to me.
"Thank you…"
"Don't mention it…"
I was just curious about how badly I had broken the canon. Not that it would be hard to find another braindance specialist in the city. Dexter could just find someone and then get rid of them. So, overall…
But if the start of the canon could be smoothed over like this, what about the continuation?
"Alright, I'm going to go take a shower. Then I'll get ready…"
The door behind Judy and me slammed shut.
"I'm first in the shower!"
She and I looked at the bathroom, where Panam had disappeared, and she had shouted that from behind the now-closed door. We both smirked.
"She's something else…"
I shook my head.
"I'm next…"
I glanced at Judy and sighed, nodding my head.
"Alright."
"Thanks…"
She pecked me on the cheek.
Panam got ready in about forty minutes. Then Judy, who took ten minutes less, and only after them did I get into the bathroom. I took about ten minutes for everything. After that, I came out of the bathroom in clean boxers, throwing the old ones into the laundry basket, and walked to the closet, where I had the clothes I had taken off last night.
"Alright, to work?"
"Yeah…"
I nodded at Panam's question, and the girls and I left the apartment. In the Thorton, Panam spent a couple of minutes finding a good radio station—or rather, one that was playing decent music today. And only after that did the Thorton's engine roar to life, and we drove off to the sound of some upbeat rap, which was surprisingly good, despite my dislike for that genre of music.
The drive took about an hour, after which Panam stopped at a place where, according to Regina's intel, we could avoid attracting attention.
"Alright, let's get to work…"
I smirked and got out of the car, heading toward the main entrance of the building.
My optics allowed me to see through walls, a kind of X-ray vision that confirmed no one was behind it. So I calmly walked inside and made my way through the first floor. I pretended that I was going to one of the empty apartments on the other side. I walked past a Scav who was watching me intently, activated my Sandevistan, sharply turned around, took out my knife, and, after taking two steps forward, plunged it through his eye and into his brain.
"First one down…"
As always, I talked to the girls over the internal comms channel. After that, I walked over to the apartment across the hall, made sure it was empty, and carefully opened it. Then I dragged the corpse inside.
I closed the door behind me and, kneeling in front of the door to the gang's base, I quickly managed to open the lock with a daemon.
The door quietly opened a little. I knew it was empty behind it, but I still had to be careful, so I very quietly slipped inside.
"I'm in…"
I smirked and slowly made my way through the base that I had to clear…
Was it difficult?
No.
Jobs like these had long become routine for me. The only difference was that the Scavs had started to fear Ghost, as Regina herself had admitted. She had leaked some of the information about me. Not to harm me, but just so the jobs weren't attributed to another solo. She always does that, as do other fixers, unless absolute anonymity is required.
The base was cleared out quickly and quietly. The Scavs didn't even realize what was happening; they just all flatlined.
"Good job, it's your turn…"
Judy's nickname came to me naturally. At first, I wanted to call her Braindance Master, but Judy just made a face at that suggestion, and it was too long… so I shortened it to Braindance… and then I remembered that a braindance is a brain, and after a little thought—I couldn't just call her Brain—I gave her the nickname 'Smarty-Pants.'
"Got it…"
"Try hard. There's almost no chrome here. Either they moved it recently, or they just don't keep any here. And I didn't find any stashes. So our extra earnings depend on you."
"I get it, I get it…"
Judy worked with intense focus on hacking the terminals I connected to. One by one, she broke through their security, scanned the data, and did it all quickly. I only had time to note how the eddies were being transferred to my account.
The money, of course, wasn't transferred directly. It went through offshore accounts and money-laundering centers that allowed us to wipe the trail, even if we lost a bit of it. But even so, what she was doing was extremely profitable for all of us. Seventy grand…
"Ghost, I'm done. The Cherry has already warmed up the Thorton."
My image nodded, and I calmly left the Scav base.
"I'm coming."
"By the way, I found the address of the place where they're keeping the chrome now, and Regina didn't give us that address."
"Hmm?"
"The thing is, the security there must be… and they've also brought in the Animals."
"The Animals aren't a problem, just like the Scavs, although I'm surprised that those gangs could find common ground."
"The Scavs promised them a forty-five percent cut of the profits."
I whistled.
I had already left the building and, after quickly walking down the street, I got into the car, which immediately took off.
"Where are we going?"
I sighed.
"Let's stick to the job… I would love to rip off the Scavs for their chrome, but we have to finish Regina's jobs for today first."
"Reputation?"
"Uh-huh…"
I gave a sad smirk.
"…if our reputation were better, I could have told Rogue to fuck off. But that's a stretch. If Regina can't, then a solo… for that, you have to have the rep of Morgan Blackhand or Johnny Silverhand, or maybe Smasher… Then yeah, you can tell people like her to get lost without a reason and without fear. But right now…"
I sighed.
"And unlike Panam, I didn't have a reason. She was the one they tried to set up with a Wraith… I mean, I had a reason, but I was the one who set the conditions for a truce, hoping she wouldn't pay, but I was wrong…"
"You seem to be going off-topic…"
Judy smirked. I, meanwhile, had already distributed the money she had earned and sent the girls their shares.
"Am I? I'm still talking about reputation, for which you sometimes have to sacrifice profit. But we could do one job at night, too. I think that might be even better."
"Are we still selling the chrome through her?"
"Well, since Judy got that info, we could do it directly this time."
"Good…"
Panam nodded. "I'll contact Mitch and Scorpion and tell them to get a car ready and be prepared to leave when I give the signal…"
"No."
I interrupted Panam.
"Tell them to leave now, and it would be better if there were two cars."
"Hmm?"
"You remember how we crammed all that chrome in last time, don't you? It's better to have one empty car there than to leave something for the Scavs or the Animals in case there's more chrome than we expect."
"Got it…"
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